On 8 October an asteroid detonated high in the atmosphere above South Sulawesi, Indonesia, releasing about as much energy as 50,000 tons of TNT, according to a NASA estimate released on Friday. That’s about three times more powerful than the atomic bomb that levelled Hiroshima, making it one of the largest asteroid explosions ever observed.

It didn’t cause damage because the explosion occurred about 20 miles above the earth… I find it interesting that natural phenomena such as volcanic eruptions or asteroid explosions are no great concern to environmentalists, but anything created by man (atomic weapons or holes in the ozone layer from global warming) are going to end life as we know it.

There’s a major disconnect here… such a huge disparity between mother nature wreaking havoc and man.

A ship, off the coast of France, is hijacked and held for ransom before Russia steps in and rescues the hostages while arresting the pirates.

Where do we begin…

What the hell is Russia doing patrolling for pirates off the coast of France?

When did Russia take such an interest in dealing with pirated ships?

What about rumors that illicit cargo was heading toward a terrorist state? Doesn’t that dovetail nicely with the fact that Russia has no problem with selling arms to any country desperate enough to do business w/the cash hungry Cossacks.

Here’s an opinion:

The official version of events was questioned by Yulia Latynina, a leading Russian opposition journalist and commentator.

“The Arctic Sea was carrying something, not timber and not from Finland, that necessitated some major work on the ship,” she wrote in the Moscow Times newspaper on Wednesday.

During two weeks of repair works in the Russian port of Kaliningrad just before the voyage, the ship’s bulkhead was dismantled so something very large could be loaded, she wrote.

“To put it plainly: The Arctic Sea was carrying some sort of anti-aircraft or nuclear contraption intended for a nice, peaceful country like Syria, and they were caught with it,” she said.